I wish I had...

While I was out of town, Sheila had a post about things she wished she had a lifetime supply of.

It's an interesting idea for a post (gives a person a window into what the writer values and thinks about), so I thought I'd make a list too. Only, I don't think I'll be as diligent as Sheila and provide links for everything.

So, here are some of the things:

Vernor's Ginger Ale. Can't seem to get it West of the Mississippi or south of the Mason-Dixon line. It's the ONLY ginger ale (in my opinion) worth drinking. Target's "Archer Farms Ginger Beer" is close but it's a lot more expensive. (And I don't have a Target that near me anyway). I know you can get such things shipped to you but I'm leery of carbonated products coming through the mail...

Paisley Farms Pickled Baby Corn. Apparently this is made in Ohio. I used to be able to buy it at the Eagle grocery when I lived in Illinois...but then I moved, and then Eagle went out of business, and I've not seen it again. It was better than any of the other baby corns out there because they actually seasoned it - it wasn't just baby corn in a weak vinegar brine like Mezzetta and other brands do. I've played around with buying other brands and adding vinegar and a handful of "pickling spice" but it's not the same.

Green and Black's chocolate bars. I can get these semi-locally, but it means a drive to Target (an hour's round trip) to do so...and sometimes, you really want a piece of chocolate, and if there isn't any on hand...

Garibaldi bars. These are a type of raisin cookie, apparently they are still common in the UK but are no longer made here. I can order them from Vermont Country Store but they are very expensive.

Those lavender dryer sachets. I really like them but they're monumentally expensive so I limit their use to sheets, which seems to be the optimal way of keeping the scent on the fabric for a while.

Toilet paper, paper towels, laundry detergent...all the cleaning/hygiene staples. Just so I never have to go out and buy them, and so I never have the experience of dropping a jar of tomato sauce at 8 pm and realizing I used up the last of the paper towels earlier in the day. (And, it goes without saying: lifetime supply of "feminine hygiene" supplies. Because it's really oogy for me to be buying Kotex and realize that the guy running the wal-mart checkout line is in my stats class.)

Excedrin migraine. Again - so I always have it when I need it.

Books, although I probably have achieved that now.

Ticonderoga pencils. I've talked about these before - best brand of pencil I've ever used, keep a good sharp point, don't use the cheesy graphite that breaks, have a nice heft in the hand.

Legal pads. The white, regular-ruled, letter-size ones. I use them for everything - making lists, writing rough drafts of papers, writing exam questions, sketching quilt blocks. It's kind of a comfort to have a big big stack of these on hand, it's like "anything I want to do I can because I have enough paper to write on."

Graph paper. I use this more than you might think. I do a lot of hand-drawn graphs as exploratory data analysis but I actually use graph paper more for planning out quilt blocks or trying to chart knitting patterns. (And yeah, I know - there are online sites where you can print out any kind and any scale you want, but I like the physicality of having a big pad of that blue, quadrille-ruled, five-squares-to-the-inch, graph paper).

Stitch markers for knitting. This is a very specialized item - they are tiny plastic loops you can place between stitches on the needles. Helpful if you have some kind of repeated pattern (like a lace pattern) and you don't want to have to count off every repeat. I use these all the time but because they're tiny, I also lose them all the time.

Size 3 crochet cotton in a variety of colors. It's my favorite size for doing thread crochet but because it's fatter than what the "hardcore" crocheters use, few places carry it - so I have to stock up when I make the every-six-months-or-so trip to a place that has a Micheal's craft store.

Thread, both machine-sewing and hand-quilting. Again, this is one of those little things that's a PITA to run out of in the middle of a project. It would be nice if I just had a dispenser on the wall - or something like one of those Star Trek replicator machines - and I could just go up to it and ask for a spool of the particular color I needed.

Lavender hand cream/moisturizing cream. It's my preferred scent and it can sometimes be difficult to find. I'm not too fussy; I'm happy with Bath and Body Work's "Lavender Vanilla" line of products.

Matches. I like candles and I hate running out of matches. A couple years ago we had a minor ice storm and none of the shops around here had matches for like three weeks - apparently everyone went into survival-hoarding mode.

The type of SAS sandals that I like to wear as dress shoes. I had a pair wear out this spring and really missed them while they were at the shoe-repair place. I can't wear most dress shoes because I have flat feet AND my feet pronate (my ankles roll and the foot turns onto its outside - sometimes it used to even make me fall when I was a child). SAS shoes are the only dress shoes I can wear that don't cause pain but don't look like Nurse Ratched shoes.

Underwear. Again, so I don't have to go out and buy it periodically. Also, I seem to be the modal size of women in my area; it is very hard to find things in my size, especially if there's been a sale going on.

So that's what I've come up with. Pretty much a practical "boring" list - many of the things on there I want a lifetime supply of solely so I could avoid having to do the periodic "restocking" that makes for the boring kind of shopping.